Britons ignored the lure of a staycation this summer and jetted abroad in large numbers, easyJet said , as the low-budget carrier reported a better than expected summer performance.

Europe's second-largest no-frills airline said that routes linking Britain to European beach and city breaks, as well as to further-flung destinations such as Israel and Morocco, had been popular over the holiday period.

Revenues per seat for the whole airline grew by 6% in the three months to 30 September, driven by Britain's long-standing attraction to the Mediterranean coastline and beyond.

"We did not seen any signs of the staycation phenomenon," an easyJet spokesperson said. "People have been getting more adventurous, given that we now operate budget flights to places like Egypt, Morocco and Israel. People are getting more interested in destinations that are further afield rather than the more traditional routes."

Continental Europe is now the biggest growth market for the Luton-based carrier, but Britain still accounts for just under half of the 45 million passengers it carries each year. EasyJet's statement countered a recent survey by the CSMA Club, a motoring and leisure association, which found that one in four holidaymakers are taking more breaks at home than last year.

EasyJet, which is embroiled in a dispute with its largest shareholder over its expansion plans, increased passenger numbers by 8% during the summer as it flew 4.77 million people in the three months to 30 September.

The load factor, or amount of seats sold per flight, rose by 1.2 percentage points to 89%. Despite taking a £6m hit on air traffic control strikes in France, Spain and Greece, the airline said that it expected full-year pre-tax profits to come in above company guidance of £100m to £150m.

EasyJet's shares rose 46.4p, or nearly 12%, to 433.3p.

Carolyn McCall, easyJet's chief executive, added that the figures were a "tribute" to the airline's strategy of running low-fare services to major airports such as Madrid-Barajas and Paris-Charles de Gaulle. Ryanair, Europe's largest low-cost carrier, has warned that easyJet could be caught out by its use of more expensive airports, leaving it exposed to leaner competitors.

EasyJet said it was "stabilising" its operations after a summer of air traffic control strikes and staffing problems at airports including its Gatwick base. The airline confirmed today that its operations director, Cor Vrieswijk, had left and was being replace by the airline's procurement director, Warwick Brady.

McCall also urged European governments to modernise air traffic control in the wake of strike action across Europe. The lack of a unified air traffic control system for Europe is a major source of frustration for the airline industry.

"The significant disruption caused to millions of passengers across Europe, however, demonstrates the urgent need for European governments and the European commission to modernise Europe's outdated system of air traffic control providers and to end the ongoing strike action," McCall said.

There was no reference to the unresolved dispute with easyJet's largest shareholder, Sir Stelios Haji-Ioannou, who is attempting to slow down expansion plans for the airline's fleet to grow from 189 aircraft to 208 by 2012.

Some analysts said that the good news on the airline's commercial performance had not offset lingering concerns about a boardroom row that has rumbled on for nearly two years. "We retain some caution, given the ongoing dispute with Stelios," Gerald Khoo, analyst at Arbuthnot Securities, said.